Consistent anchor point

Kerf

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Working your muscles to the limit tires you more without gaining power,
Interesting you should say this. I was talking to a physio friend today about finding a natural stop for the draw arm shoulder and he made exactly the same point - that it would quickly become tiring and would lead to a loss of control and therefore a loss of accuracy.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Working your muscles to the limit
I am not too clear what that means. Moving the joint to its limit, is what I thought was being suggested. In some postures, the muscles have to work harder because of the leverage they are put under.( draw elbow sticking out of line for example) A straight arm is considered better as the forces are bone on bone. The joint is almost at the limit of its movement but the muscles are not working to their limit.
 

ThomVis

Active member
The joint is almost at the limit of its movement but the muscles are not working to their limit.
With the scapula being drawn towards the spine there is no real joint that limits it, just the contracting muscles (rhomboid major and lower trapezius) and the streching of the front tissue and clavicle.
To my knowledge, when a joint reaches it's limits, so will the muscle controlling it. It wouldn't be an effective muscle if it had "motion" to spare. Might be witin a couple of percentages.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Cheers for that. Just wanted to clear my confusion. "Muscles working to their limits" sounded as if they were weight lifting and close to bursting.
 

Hawkmoon

Member
I think what the OP is thinking of is that you should not let your anchor dictate your draw, you need to use a reasonable light bow and then come up to full draw and see where your hand is, then you can find at least 2 preferably three reference points to give you a fixed anchor. Too many archers just try and copy the anchor they have seen another archer use but as we are all slightly different shapes there is no one size fits all.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
It seems to me that things have been said in the past about anchor points,( centre of nose and chin springs to mind,) which are designed to make it easy to "tell others" what to do. A one size fits all approach.
I don't think that is a good plan; but what replaces it?
I like to use the ideas that the draw elbow should end up behind the draw hand( not sticking out of line) and at the same time brings the string into line with the aiming eye. Also, the index finger of the draw hand should have a good long contact with the underside of the jaw.
Usually that puts the string contact just off centre on the chin.
 

malbro

Instinctive Archer
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I have noticed that there is a difference between field and target archery, in field the archer is taught to draw to an achor point on the cheek rather than under the chin which was how I was taught on a beginners course at a Target club, luckily my coach appreciated my previous experience with a field coach and only suggested I tried the under the chin position, rather than pushed me to use it. In the end I returned to the cheek position as it felt more natural to me and I get better groupings that way (indoors), however I do appreciate that the higher anchor point is better suited to shorter distances. Incidently I shoot barebow of the shelf with no sights, stabilisers or other any other assistance.
 

Kerf

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I think what the OP is thinking of is that you should not let your anchor dictate your draw, you need to use a reasonable light bow and then come up to full draw and see where your hand is, then you can find at least 2 preferably three reference points to give you a fixed anchor. Too many archers just try and copy the anchor they have seen another archer use but as we are all slightly different shapes there is no one size fits all.
Actually that is precisely what I was driving at. Thanks for understanding me better than I understand myself!
 

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
Shooting target archery barebow I have two anchor points. For 90m & 70m I use a standard under chin, tip of nose anchor which gets me point on gold with 3mm string walking at 90m. At 50m/60yds I use a higher side of face anchor with the big thumb joint located in the indent between the back of the jaw bone and the neck muscle. The smaller thumb joint will just touch the lower corner of the jaw bone.
 

Kerf

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Shooting target archery barebow I have two anchor points. For 90m & 70m I use a standard under chin, tip of nose anchor which gets me point on gold with 3mm string walking at 90m. At 50m/60yds I use a higher side of face anchor with the big thumb joint located in the indent between the back of the jaw bone and the neck muscle. The smaller thumb joint will just touch the lower corner of the jaw bone.
Do you use split finger at the longer distances and three under when you anchor on your face?
 

English Bowman

Well-known member
In my opinion a firm anchor point on the face will always give more consistency and therefore accuracy than a floating anchor point. The advantage of drawing past the face is that you will get more power into the arrow. Even if the draw weight isn't increased. 50lbs drawn to 32" will put more energy into the arrow than 50lbs drawn to 28"
So I have two things to think about;
1) If you could get more power and the same accuracy by drawing past your face then why is a firm anchor on the face used by all the top archers in competition and in hunting? (If there was no advantage to a firm anchor no one would have started using a shorter draw.)
2) Why did they have both 31" and 28" arrows on the Mary Rose?
I honestly don't know the answer to the second question, but I think that the long arrows would have been used for long range, and to get the maximum power into the arrow, but when the enemy was closer and they could aim at individual targets, they'd use the shorter ones, and anchor in the same way that field archers and hunters do today. (The arrows were found together, so I don't think that it was for different size archers)
 

Hawkmoon

Member
I only know one archer who shoots in this way and he shoots amazingly consistently, he is also the only archer I know who can make his shoulder blades touch! Basically his draw stops at this point because he cannot move is shoulder back any further, his release is dead because he cannot follow through at all. For me the physical limit would be with my hand behind my head (the end of my follow through) with no point of contact.
I personally have never advise anyone where to anchor, instead I have said that they should get a very low poundage bow that they can hold at full draw forever, and go though twenty or so reversals with it, once they are comfortable they should come up to full draw and see where their hand is (it will almost always be close to the corner of the mouth), they can then feel where their hand is and start finding reference points ( ideally three) that will give them a consistent reference at a comfortable draw length.
One point can be rotated around, two points can be hinged but three points are solid, for me it is my index finger at the corner of my mouth, the base of the same finger (third bone from the tip) on my cheek bone and my thumb tucked under the back corner of my jaw.
 

Draven

New member
Maybe watch this video to understand what anchor is


Jim Ploen is one of the archery legends, his knowledge in archery is way up there.
 
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